How do you clean out your icloud storage

Cloud storage is great because it’s a free get-out-of-jail card for whenever we run out of storage space on our devices. But, what happens when we run out of iCloud storage? With only 5GB of free iCloud storage on each account, this is a very real possibility that iPhone and Mac users face – here is what to do.

How to use iCloud

If you’re still unsure, iCloud is essentially the Apple version of Google Drive and Photos. It’s the key way to take the burden off your devices, as well as connect them through the cloud. To turn iCloud on (because you may find it is turned off), log in with your Apple ID under accounts within Settings and select which services you may need.

Check what the culprit is

In order to clear up storage, you will be more effective if you know the cause and culprit of what’s using it. Photos, videos, iCloud backups, messages, and docs are all contributors to this.

In order to see what your storage is on your iPhone, head to Settings, Apple ID, click on iCloud, and then finally, Manage Storage. From here, you will be able to see not only how much storage space you have left, but what category of data is taking up the space.

Optimize Storage

When using a Mac, you can head into your iCloud settings and make them more optimal. Simply go to System Preferences (under the Apple symbol in the top left), select iCloud and click Optimize Storage. The instructions are similar on iPhone too, where it’s simply under Settings, click on your name, press iCloud and then head into Photos. Within here, there’s an Optimize iPhone Storage setting.

There is also a High-Efficiency mode on newer iPhones too when heading into Settings, Camera, then Formats. This will reduce the amount of space each new photo takes up without compromising its quality.

Do you want photos saved on iCloud?

We recommend saving your photos to iCloud as it’s a great way to keep them secure over time. But, it is possible to stop this if you wish, which would likely free up a lot of iCloud space. To do this, head into settings, your Apple ID, iCloud, Manage Storage, Photos, and then press Disable and Delete – but again, understand that this will stop using your iCloud storage for photos and photos won’t be able to be restored later. 

Furthermore, you can simply remove photos individually on iCloud to free up storage by opening Photos, tapping them, then clicking the Trash icon. When it says that it will also be deleted from iCloud Photos, then click Delete Photo. These photos will end up in a “recently deleted” folder which you can also delete to free up even more space. And, if you want a faster way to do this, you can delete entire albums on the Albums tab.

Saving files to PC and Hard Drives

If you’re doing the above, it’s wise to transfer the photos from your phone to PC, then save them on a dedicated hard drive to keep them safe. In fact, it’s possible to transfer lots of files from your phone to your PC; from your contacts and calendars to your iMessages, settings, and photos. 

Or, back them up on another cloud service provider. Most providers offer a promotional free storage amount before charging, so when using a few different ones, you will be getting the maximum amount of cloud storage for free.

Delete old iCloud backups

As you may notice when assessing what’s taking up all the iCloud storage space, a lot of it is usually iCloud backups. You can remove backups that you don’t need or simply extract just the important data from them. Head to Settings, Apple ID, iCloud, Manage Storage, then click on Backup. You can press Delete Backup and Disable & Delete to confirm, but again, be sure that this is exactly what you intend to delete. It’s possible to simply exclude certain apps from this backup, which will also free up space.

Deleting files on iCloud

Under Manage Storage in the iCloud settings, you can click on iCloud Drive and see the files stored here. For example, Documents and Data can be deleted. But, heading into your Mailbox (assuming these are being saved on iCloud) and deleting the mail and then emptying Trash can also free up space, as well as deleting messages. In fact, you can head to the Messages app, choose All Messages, and delete all of them with the Trash icon.

Ultimately, iCloud backs up certain apps. And, not all of these apps need to use iCloud, but it depends on the person. So, one of the fastest and most direct ways to free up space is to simply uncheck the apps that you don’t want to use iCloud (under iCloud > Manage Storage). 

I have used my iPhone 12 for 3 years. I like to use it to take pictures and have taken many beautiful pictures, but I got a message saying my iCloud is full? What should I do?

- Question from discussion.apple.com

Why my iCloud is full?

iCloud is a powerful cloud storage device, that enables Apple users to upload their photos, videos, notes, documents, and other data to their iCloud storage. Apart from protecting their important data from loss, users can also access their files from different Apple products with the same Apple account.

However, iCloud only provides 5GB of free space for each user. That is totally not enough for our daily life and you may receive a message saying iCloud backup failed due to not enough space on iCloud. When the storage problem arises, you could do something to fix it, like deleting the repeating pictures, clearing unnecessary applications, or transferring data to a PC to release storage. 5 solutions would be introduced in the following passage.

How to free up iCloud storage when iCloud storage is full with 5 tips

Before we get started, you should know that delete iCloud data will also remove them from other devices enabled iCloud. So you may delete these data completely, please backup your iPhone to a PC to avoid data loss.

Solution 1. Manage/delete iCloud data

When you find your iCloud is running out of space, the first thing you can do is to check your storage and manage data on it. Here are the steps of how to check iCloud storage.

Step 1. Go to iPhone “Setting” on your iPhone or iPad.

Step 2. Tap “[Your Name]” banner > “iCloud” > “Manage Storage”.

Step 3. Here you can check specific backups information, and you can tap an item that takes up a large space, and choose “Disable & Delete” to release space.

But sometimes, you may notice that your iCloud is still full even though you delete some data. It is probably because iCloud still holds backups of your old iOS devices.

To delete those files, you can tap “Backups” when you enter iCloud storage on Settings. Choose a device name. Then You could see the backup size, the time of the last backup, and so on. Below is the app data that is going to be included in the iCloud backup. You could unselect the unneeded ones to reduce your backup size.

If you don’t want to disable iCloud and delete all data backup, you can follow the solutions below to delete some redundant files as you want.

Solution 2. Delete files on iCloud Drive

Besides syncing the app’s data, iCloud also enables you to upload some files, such as Word documents, PDFs, Audios. You may use this feature a lot and don't have regular cleanup. Your iCloud space could be easily run out. You can remove some files on iCloud Drive.

1. Tap the “Files” app on your iPhone or iPad.

2. Select “iCloud Drive“ under the “Locations”.

3. Tap and hold a file that you want to delete, and choose “Delete“

Solution 3. Delete redundant photos on iCloud

Photos and videos usually take up the majority of the space, so if your iCloud storage is full, you can delete some redundant photos. With iCloud photos enabled, you can directly delete some pictures to free up iCloud photos if you don’t want to completely turn off iCloud Photos. And the deletion will be synced to the iCloud.

Part 1. Remove Recently Deleted photos

When you delete photos, these photos will be not removed from your device and iCloud but removed to a Recently Delete album. You can delete them by yourself.

Step 1. You can go to the “Photos” app on your iPhone, and find some photos you don’t need anymore, tap them. Then tap the “Trash” icon.

Step 2. Then it will note you “This photo will be deleted from iCloud Photos on all your devices.” Tap “Delete Photo”.

Step 3. The deleted photo actually will be sent to the Recently Deleted album instead of deleted permanently. Then tap the “Albums” tab on the Photos app.

Step 4. Wipe down, and select “Recently Deleted”, you can see deleted photos in the last month. Select them and delete them.

Part 2. Delete duplicate and similar photos

When you take photos, you may take the shutter several times to capture the best moment. But you will also get lots of duplicate and similar images on your iCloud. 

If your iCloud and device don't contain many photos,  you can delete them manually. Or you can turn to a professional photos Deduplication tool- FoneTool. With this tool, you can easily find and delete duplicate photos on iPhone/iCloud. 

Solution 4. Remove Messages

Message is a common tool helping us communicate with friends. After years of use, you could have several GB of message kept both on your iPhone and iCloud. Here are the steps of deleting messages on the iPhone.

1. Tap the “Messages” app on your iPhone. Then choose “All Messages”.

2. You can slide a message leftward and tap the “Trash” icon to delete a conversation.

Solution 5. Delete Mails with attachments

We often receive mails with attachments that can occupy lots of storage space of iCloud. Deleting some Mail that contains attachments can be the way to release iCloud storage.

To delete Mail Attach, go to “Mail” > tap “View” > Choose “Sort by Attachments”. Then delete the mail with attachments.

Bonus Tip: Backup iPhone before cleaning iCloud to prevent data loss

It is an effective way to delete some iCloud data when the storage is almost full. However, iCloud usually store lots of important data that we never want to lose, like photos, videos of friends or families. So, before cleaning up iCloud, we strongly suggest you to backup your iPhone data to a PC or an external disk, USB drive.

To perform this operation, FoneTool can also help you. With this tool, you can easily backup your iPhone data, including photos, videos, messages, contacts, and other data from your iPhone to another safe place.

● Easily Backup: You could see all the features clearly on the interface and easily finish backup. It could be used to back up photos, videos, music, messages, and contacts.
● Preview Files: Whenever you back up or restore your phone, you could preview and select the files you need to avoid saving useless photos.
● Flexible Selection: For example, when you back up photos, you can select just some of them rather than the entire folder and you could also do this when restoring your phone. It allows you to restore files to another Apple device including iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
● Widely Compatible: It supports most iPhone models from iPhone 4 to the latest iPhone 14 and would be perfectly compatible with the latest iOS 16.

Step 1. Download FoneTool for free. Connect iPhone to a computer with a USB cable and tap "Trust" on it.

Step 2. Click Phone Backup and go to Selective Backup.

Step 3. Click an icon to select files in the folder if you need them. If you want to backup iPhone photos,  please click Photos. After selection, click on OK.

Step 3. Click Start Backup and your backup would be saved to PC.

Tips:

1. Please make sure the data is stored on the iPhone or iPad.

2. FoneTool also provides Full Backup to backup the whole iPhone.

Conclusion

There are many solutions when iCloud storage is full. Now you have known how to free up iCloud Storage on iPhone. In conclusion, you can disable an app to use iCloud and delete its data to release space. No matter what methods you are using, please backup your iOS data in a safe place to prevent data loss.

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